Spanish Footballing Hero

Central United FC are seeking to lift another Chatham Cup as they reach the last four.

They are the most decorated team of the teams in the semis but they have yet another chance to add another title. Three Auckland club remain in the knockout tournament as they battle for the crown.

Central United will face off against Bay Olympic at Kiwitea St on Saturday while Onehunga Sports will battle southern side Cashmere Technical on Sunday.

United would be seeking to get a recent title with the last lifted in 2012. They would be traveling to face the weakest of the remaining four teams. It is noteworthy that they have lost to this same Olympic side twice this year.

Central will be without former Wellington Phoenix star Albert Riera. The player is taking a break before the rest of the summer activities flow in. The team should have forwards Nicolas Zambrano and EmilainoTade available. Auckland men Angel Berlanga and Marko Dordevic should contribute defensively as well. Continue Reading

Liverpool are set to blaze the trail in the wings when the season restarts in August.

The club has lacked top class wingers in recent years but the signing of Mohammed Salah for a club record to join an already impressive Sadio Mane is mouth-watering.

Jurgen Klopp has raised the profile of the Reds in recent years. The German tactician needs a silverware to solidify his legacy at Anfield. With the two top wingers, he stands a decent chance.

Last season was marred with inconsistency and injury crises which the team is focused on resolving. The squad still needs a top class central defender, a leftback and if possible a top striker to add. The team was very attack minded but their loopholes in defence exposed and limited them. This makes sorting it out a key dream. Continue Reading

There are reports that Newcastle Jets could sign A-League coaching legend Ernie Merrick.

The manager did the double with Melbourne Victory in 2006/07 and 2008/09. He was pushed out in 2011 as the last foundation coach. He has picked up the Coach of the Year award twice but there are fears about his recent history.

Merrick joined Wellington Phoenix in 2013 but has failed to make his mark. In his debut season the club finished ten points off a finals spot. They place ninth in the standings, 24 whole points from the winners Brisbane. They rose to the fourth spot the subsequent year but it was not still enough, considering his calibre.

Last year, Wellington finished with minus twenty goals’ difference. With only seven victories, they struggled to clinch the ninth spot. Merrick resigned after the first eight games this season.

The Jets have suffered with regards to their managerial role. After releasing Mark Jones, they are now set to bring in Merrick even though they hope for a much better fate than Wellington. Newcastle have other issues aside the coaching role as several off-field issues trouble the club. Continue Reading

Ex-Liverpool and Manchester City winger, Albert Riera denies being sacked by Serie A club, Udinese after he missed a match to play in the poker tournament in Slovenia where he won £3,000 for finishing second.

Riera’s contract with the Italian side was terminated on Thursday, but the 32-year old, who played 55 times and scored four goals in the Premier League, has insisted it was by ‘mutual consent’ and for football reasons. The Spaniard spent two years at Anfield after joining Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool from Espanyol for £8 million in 2008, having had an unsuccessful loan spell at the Ethihad two years earlier.

He signed for Udinese from Turkish giants, Galatasaray in March but has been allowed to leave following his absence.

Udinese announced Riera’s departure on Thursday on the club’s official website. Continue Reading

The interim co-managers of Wellington Phoenix, Chris Greenacre and Des Buckingham are in the running for a permanent appointment in the club.

Since taking over from Ernie Merrick, the pair recently oversaw their second game on Saturday night where the team drew with the Western Sydney Wanderers in Auckland.

The two coaches have been linked with the replacement for the Vacant coaching role, either as a pair or on an individual level. However, they would remain interim managers until next weeks’ game which will see them go against Newcastle Jets.

There are a few other options available, being touted as possible replacements for the vacant position. Mark Rudan, Luciano Trani and Chris Taylor are some of the other options for the coaching role. Ramon Tribulietx, Auckland City boss, is also touted for the vacancy.

Since his taking over in 2010, Auckland City has qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup five times and went on to win bronze in 2014. He had also nurtured the talents of Roy Krishna and Albert Riera in the ranks of the Auckland squad before their move to Phoenix. Continue Reading

Former Liverpool player Albert Riera believes that Liverpool has a big chance to win the title this season.

He said that the club is already in a good place in the Premier League after having played all the big teams. He believes that the players are improving and that they are finally learning how to play under Jurgen Klopp.

Albert Riera said that the German manager has made interesting changes to the Liverpool side and that this improvement is seen in the way the team is playing. He believes that Liverpool can become a better side than Borussia Dortmund and that they may also be successful in Europe in future seasons.

Albert Riera believes that Liverpool can benefit from the absence of European competition and focus on Premier League. This makes them one of the favorites for the title. Riera said that Jurgen Klopp could take advantage of the extra resting days to prepare his team and ensure that they are ready for the league games during the weekend.Continue Reading

Former Liverpool winger Albert Riera has blamed the media for his problem with Liverpool former manager Rafael Benitez.

He accused the media of having twisted his comments and said that he never attacked Benitez in public.

At the time, there were reports that Albert Riera said that Rafael Benitez lacks interpersonal skills. He stated that the manager had never talked directly to him about his problem on the pitch and that he preferred to remain in his office. Albert Riera said at that time that Benitez was the worst manager he has worked with and that he is the main reason why he cannot play at Liverpool.

He admitted that he was frustrated at that time because he was not selected in the Spanish team for the World Cup because he did not play regularly with the Liverpool team. He said that it was at that time that journalists seize the opportunity to alter his comments and to create tension between him and Rafael Benitez. He stated that he has a normal relationship with the manager and that it was the media that created all kind of rumors.Continue Reading

Albert Riera says he never had as much of a problem with Rafael Benitez as the public perception is and the public perception is like that because of the press which twisted the words he had uttered in total frustration in the summer of 2010.

Riera was not named in the La Roja Battalion to board the flight to the African continent for the World Cup that year and that was due to him not being in the frame for selection in Liverpool’s first XI in the last eight weeks of the English Season.

But, as per Riera, never did he put the responsibility of his non-selection on any particular person and he even went on air immediately after that row to clarify that he would first like to blame himself rather than anyone else for that setback. Continue Reading

The Spain national football team is supervised by the Royal Spanish Football Federation.

The current head coach, Vincent Del Bosque has performed brilliantly as a coach for his team. The coach of Spain Vincente del Bosque will be leading Spain in the Euro 2016 as he is preparing himself to reshape his squad.

The latest news on the football team states that the Real Madrid is considered to be the most valuable teams of football in the world for the 4th time. This Spanish team leads the way from Barcelona and United remains in the 3rd position. As per the US magazine known as Forbes, the value of Real Madrid is 3.645 billion USD and the annual revenue stands at 694 million dollars. This is indeed the slender benefit over Barcelona as far as these two categories are concerned. Barcelona has been shown in the rich list as it has a value of around 3.549 billion dollars and Manchester United has a value of 3.317 billion dollars.

Six Premier League is said to have featured in the list of top 10. The top 20 teams are worth 24 percent higher when compared to the other teams who were in that position about 1 year ago. The increase in the income is also due to kit deals and television contracts. The study also stated that Real Madrid has been ranked as the 2nd richest sports team in the world as they are behind the Dallas Cowboys American football team which stands at 4 billion dollars. Well, the Real Madrid has made a record in the history of football.

Former Liverpool midfielder Albert Riera has blamed Rafael Benitez for this poor form when he was at Liverpool. He stated that Benitez has never been able to solve a problem by talking and that he had poor man-management skills.

Albert Riera once said that Benitez was managing a sinking-ship and that he does not listen to suggestions. He argued that the Spanish manager has never approached him to tell him how he can improve his game. Instead, he left him on the bench without ever talking to him.

Albert Riera believes that he could have made something to help the Liverpool team during that period. Unfortunately, Rafael Benitez was not prepared to listen to any suggestions and that he thought that he was the only boss in the team.

Rafael Benitez ultimately heard about these comments in the press and suspended the Spanish midfielder from the team. This prompted Riera to seek a move away for the team and at that moment, he was considering moving to Russia.

At that moment, Albert Riera wanted to participate in the 2010 World Cup and the only way out was to go and play in the Russian league. There were rumors that Russian clubs CSKA Moscow and Spartak Moscow was interested in the player but these moves did not materialize. Instead, the midfielder made the move to Olympiacos in Greece where he would stay for one year before moving to Turkey. Continue Reading